Friday, July 25, 2008

Bangalore - A day to remember

July 25th. A day people of Bangalore will not forget in a hurry. Ok, maybe it's too early to write, but write I will, I need to put down what I feel before I forget the feeling altogether. So here goes..
Mid- afternoon...about 2:45 pm, someone in the office declares that there have been serial blasts in the city. Not much reaction is garnered at this announcement. Largely because such things people tell and the rumors spread and it's all a great big hoax. But this announcement was immediately followed by another colleague in the office saying that there have been blasts. Google's put into use immediately. Google shockingly throws up results in news channel websites flashing the news " Flash news : Blasts rock Bangalore ". First reaction is of complete disbelief and then denial. Bangalore??? Namma (my) Bangalore, come on, not possible. Then reality sinks in. It has to be true. Rumors run wild., all the localities are mentioned as places of the blasts. Panic sets in. People call their friends, parents, spouses, children to see if they're fine. Phone lines are jammed. Interenet helps.Long live Gtalk, Yahoo chat, MSn which helped peple get in touch (HINT: Dont block them ;)). More news trickles down, live videos are watched, things get a little less panicky. 7 blasts are confirmed, casuality :1- Lakshmi, injured: reports vary. Low intensity blasts. people sigh in relief and helplessness and propably in fear and get back to what they were doing.Companies ask their employees not to panic, Roads are jammed and everyone's in a daze.
Who'd have done it? At the time of this posting, noone has owned up to it and the police are still looking. Some say it's a warning of what these people are capable of. Some say, it's more local and related to the local government coming to power.Some say terrorists. Some say law and order problem. Whatever it turns out to be in the end, The incident has shaken Bangaloreans. Very much. Because such things happen to other people, not us. And now we are the "other people". What a tag. What a way to make a point.
After all this, life goes on.